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The Dumbbell Prize: And the Winner Is...
Doug is the author of the landmark book, Extreme Project Management®: Using Leadership, Principles and Tools to Deliver Value in the Face of Volatility. He works with clients who undertake projects in very demanding environments: those settings that feature high speed, high change, high unpredictability and high stress. Doug has lived in the trenches—from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to Beijing, China—with over 275 project teams with budgets that ranged from $25,000 to over $25 million. He is one of the founders of the Agile Leadership Network, an organization dedicated to connecting, developing and supporting great project leaders. He is known for his hard-hitting and humorous keynote speeches that address vital issues facing today’s project-based organizations. You can visit Doug at www.dougdecarlo.com.
Good fiction can make great reading. But when fiction passes as reality, it can lead to unpleasant surprises. That’s where the Dumbbell Prize in Project Management comes in.
One of my first coaching assignments was with a young man who was the project manager for a new computer-aided design and engineering software application. The project included both the development and deployment of the system, which would be used by about 125 engineers. One thing I learned about CAD/E systems: man, they are really complex.
George (not his real name) was a classically trained project manager. In other words, he had waterfall tattooed on his brain, bless his heart. Knowing I was coming in on Monday to begin our coaching relationship, George spent the weekend using Microsoft Project to plan out the remaining work on the project, which was expected to take five more months. He had it nailed: five phases broken into 973 tasks and subtasks with some even broken down into 12-hour durations, to the point that George could tell you what Heather would be working on three months out and for how long. The plan was so tight the printer squealed when he hit the print button. Dan felt good. I felt sick.
To add a little more background, in addition to the project’s technical complexity and all the unknowns, George was working with a team of people who were spread …
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If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man but deteriorate the cat. - Mark Twain |